3:39pm: Barton has officially been placed on waivers, per a press release from the Wizards. As we relayed in a separate story, the plan is for Goodwin to fill the newly opened roster spot.
12:49pm: Wizards guard Will Barton has completed a buyout agreement with the team, according to ESPN’s Adrian Wojnarowski (Twitter link). Wojnarowski first reported just after the trade deadline passed that Washington and Barton were working out a buyout.
While there has been no official announcement from the Wizards yet, it sounds like Barton will be placed on waivers today and would be on track to reach free agency on Thursday. He had been earning $14.375MM in the final year of his contract.
After being packaged with Monte Morris in the offseason trade that sent Kentavious Caldwell-Pope and Ish Smith to Denver, Barton has had a disappointing season for his hometown team in D.C., averaging just 7.7 points per game on 38.7% shooting in 40 appearances (19.6 MPG).
Barton’s three-point shooting remained solid (38.0%) this season and he had several good years with the Nuggets before last summer’s trade, so the 32-year-old should garner some interest from playoff contenders as a low-cost free agent addition.
If and when Barton becomes a free agent, Denver would be the only team ineligible to sign him — NBA rules prohibit a team from re-signing a player it traded during the offseason if he’s waived by his new team during the subsequent season.
The Wizards, meanwhile, will have an open roster spot after waiving Barton and are widely believed to be planning a promotion for two-way player Jordan Goodwin. As Bobby Marks of ESPN tweets, Washington still has an unused portion of its mid-level exception left and is about $2.1MM below the luxury tax line, so Goodwin could be signed to a multiyear deal without team salary going into the tax.